Mussel Miso Soup

This is another dish I made with mussels the other day.  My mom made this all the time growing up.  As you can imagine, mussels or clams are great for miso soup. It gives that nice extra flavor for dashi.   

Miso soup is something I eat daily bases since I was born.  I was born in a fishing town known for producing quality Katsuobushi ,which is an fermented and smoked filet of bonito tuna.  Yes, the whole town actually smells like it - if you can imagine the scent - when the factories are doing their smoking thing.  Finely shredded Katsuobushi is the key to the flavor aka umami in dashi (soup broth).  Katsuobushi is available at any Japanese or Korean grocery stores here in the States, but you can substitute dashi to vegetable or chicken broth if it's too find the dried ingredient for dashi.

You can make dashi with other ingredients like dried kelps, dried sardines or dried shiitake mushrooms, but I almost always use katsuobushi and kelp in my dashi unless I'm on cleanse. 

I haven't made my own miso, but I would love to try it one of these days.  That'd be a great one to post : )

Recipe: serves 4 medium bowls

dashi soup:

1 cup of bonito flakes

1 sheet of dried kelp

4 cups of water

* ok to use chicken or vegetable broth instead of dashi broth for making miso soup.

Pour 4 cups of water in a pan and bring it to boil.  Add a cup of bonio flakes and a sheet of dried kelp. Let it simmer for 20-30 minutes at medium heat.  Take put the kelp and strain the broth.

Mussel Miso Soup

3 table spoons of miso paste

1 pound of mussels

4 cups of dashi

green onions

Put miso paste in hot dashi broth and whisk it until dissolved.  Add fresh mussels in the soup, cover it with a lid. Simmer until the shells are open and the mussels are cooked for 5-10 minutes at medium heat. 

Serve the soup with thinly sliced or chopped green onions!